Elves of the Swarm (Budget)
Standard
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Temurgy and Ixalan Updates —May 20, 2017
I've settled on a final new version of Energy Elves. It's now back to Temur , only three colors. I played around with including white for Cast Out, but the manabase is much better without including a fourth color. White vs red is the debate of which one I will use and red gives me more right now than white does. Not using the fourth color does hurt my ability to fully converge Skyrider Elf, but I feel this is a sacrifice I can make to let the overall deck run much smoother. I classify this deck as midrange and ramp, but it can also be pretty aggressive with Sylvan Advocate and Rishkar, Peema Renegade. This deck is not just about Elves, but also about energy and to better utilize energy I'm now including more cards that make or use it. Temur are the colors of energy, Temurgy.
One of the defining characteristics of decks in Standard using energy is they have Rogue Refiner which makes sense because he makes energy and draws a card as well as having three power, he's just an excellent creature. I haven't used Refiner yet in any version of Energy Elves which was a mistake; he's now part of this deck. Refiner allows me to be much more flexible with the use of energy. Before Refiner having enough energy for both Skyrider Elf fully converged and Harnessed Lightning was a some what delicate guessing game because many times I couldn't do both. Having to not balance what is more important a big flying Elf or enough energy to kill something is nice for a change. Aethersphere Harvester is back, to get the best use out of Harvester I want to be able to activate it's lifelink ability which requires energy. Adding Refiner makes Harvester better; he makes energy to power Harvester and he can crew it. Harvester is great vs aggro specifically Zombies and Mardu Vehicles which are both popular right now in Standard, especially Zombies. It's five toughness as well as lifelink make it a real roadblock in the matchups; it also can't be outright killed by Grasp of Darkness or Fatal Push without triggering revolt. Refiner makes Harnessed Lightning much better. Harnessed has been called the red Doom Blade because of how powerful it can be with energy. Refiner boosts the power level of both Harnessed and Harvester.
I've tried a lot of different variations since Amonkhet has been in Standard. All these variations found me drifting away from the energy theme instead of reinforcing it. This is the main reason I've now abandoned these variations instead sticking and trying to better the energy theme. I started out with giving high praise to Rhonas the Indomitable, but I have since realized that while Rhonas is a very good card he can be limited in this deck. It's hard to turn him on allowing him to attack without using his ability which costs making it slow and vulnerable to removal of the creature I'm boosting to allow him to attack or block. I'm still using Rhonas, but only as a 1 of, his ability to give trample to Elves while slow is very good with Rishkar, Peema Renegade and the ramping aspect in this deck. Many variations I was jamming in cards that work well with Rhonas for example Woodland Wanderer and Arlinn Kord Flip which was a mistake. In the last update I praised Arlinn Kord Flip, but she's not making this final version because she's just too slow and vulnerable. It's hard to protect Arlinn with all the great creature removal right now in Standard. She can protect herself the turn she is played by making a Wolf token, but then she only has 3 loyalty and she flips. Her flip side is not the side that I want to be using I want to use her front side. Her ability to give Glorybringer vigilance is very powerful, but unrealistic to actually consistently do in a game.
For a while since Amonkhet has been in Standard this deck was using Cast Out and Inspiring Vantage or Evolving Wilds for white to help to cast it. Cast Out is a great card, but including white in my opinion was hurting the manabase much more than helping it. I need a majority of the lands to make green mana because green is the primary color; all my creatures except 2x Glorybringer require green mana. Vantage doesn't make green mana; I was having too many opening hands with a Vantage and other non-green source land(s) which means a mulligan. This deck is now using only 4x lands that can't make green mana out of 21x lands making it much more consistence with less mulligans. The main problem with having too many lands which can't make green mana is this deck is only using 21x lands therefore I shouldn't expect a lot of lands in any given game. To offset this I need to draw lands that can make green mana. I've replaced Vantage with Game Trail. I'm using 7x lands that can help Trail enter the battlefield untapped this isn't an ideal number, but so far it's been fine and some what consistent. Trail can give me an early game green source or a red source for Harnessed Lightning or Magma Spray.
Evolving Wilds has been part of this deck since I've been using Tireless Tracker because Wilds is great with Tracker giving me two clues in one turn. Wilds is slow which is the reason I've cut it. I need the majority of lands to enter the battlefield untapped and Wilds doesn't do this. For a long time now I've been main decking Tracker because she's one of the better green cards that can take over a game if not dealt with right away. Tracker is however in my opinion not a good main deck card right now because it's not very good in aggro matchups. Tracker can be slow and vs aggro she's really just a chump blocker who gives me no real value before she dies. Tracker is being replaced main deck with Rogue Refiner because Refiner gives me double value, energy and a draw and then it can be used as a chump blocker. Tracker for now is in the sideboard because she's great in any non-aggro matchup.
The cutting of white lets me focus more on red including Glorybringer as a double red creature and Magma Spray as an early game removal spell. I need the consistency of having a red source for my removal in the early game while not hurting my ability to also have a green source. Spray is a very good removal right now in Standard because the two, Zombies and Mardu Vehicles of the three, best decks in Standard are using recursive creatures, Scrapheap Scrounger and Dread Wanderer, who can be a huge problem. Spray exiles these creatures as well as a large number of all the other creatures in both matchups. Cast Out was a way to deal with Planewalkers and since I'm cutting it I need another way to deal with them, Glorybringer. Glorybringer is excellent at killing Planeswalkers because it has flying and haste. It can also kill, by doing four damage to it, a possible creature who can block my army from killing a Planeswalker. Glorybringer adds another flier to the flying arsenal madeup of Skyrider Elf and Aethersphere Harvester. Red gives me access to Harnessed Lightning which with the amount of energy this deck can now make is a very versatile creature removal spell.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade is now a center piece Elf because of his ramping ability. Riskhar also brings some aggression with Sylvan Advocate and Verdurous Gearhulk. A turn two Advocate into a turn three Rishkar can setup some nasty turn four plays. Gearhulk turn four can make this deck very aggressive. Rishkar is also very good with Aethersphere Harvester because he can put counters on Harvester. Due to the legendary rule I can't have more than one Rishkar in play at once, but I can still play other Rishkars then choosing which one I want to keep on the battlefield and using his enter the battlefield trigger to put counters on other creatures.
Now including Rogue Refiner makes Servant of the Conduit better letting me take more advantage of using him to make any color of mana later on in a game. Two of Servant's main purposes in this deck are to help me ramp and converge a 4/4 Skyrider Elf turn three or a 5/5 turn four or a turn four Verdurous Gearhulk, but he now has another powerful creature to ramp into play turn four, Glorybringer. Being able to ramp Glorybringer into play is great because of haste and it's ability to do 4 damage to a target creature when it attacks. He's pretty much guaranteed to be able to kill something at this time of the game while still doing 4 damage through the air.
Final Thoughts
Temur is now the colors of Energy Elves. I think Rogue Refiner is the missing piece that this decks needs to better use energy. I cut white to focus more on red since red is very good right now in Standard due to Magma Spray and Glorybringer. I tried many variations of different decks since Amonkhet has been in Standard, using cards like Rhonas the Indomitable and Arlinn Kord Flip but they were hurting the energy theme more than helping it. In the coming weeks look for the updated the sections here: Deck Strategy, Main Deck Card Choices and Sideboard Card Choices, they have all been empty for too long.
The next big Wizards announcement is Announcement Day which is in June, we don't know the exact date in June yet. It's before the release of the next set in the Amonkhet block, Hour of Devastation in July. At this announcement we will learn what the next block, the next plane, we are visiting in the Magic multiverse after Amonkhet. I have a feeling that it's a return block because we just had back to back blocks with new planes; going to another new plane seems unlikely. My hope is the next plane we are visiting is Dominaria. Returning to Dominaria does make a lot of sense because Magic's 25th anniversary is coming up and Dominaria was one of the first planes in Magic that hasn't been revisited yet. We should revisit for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. Dominaria has Goblins which is a tribe in red that really needs a boost right now. Dominaria has Elves which also need a boost. There are Slivers on Dominaria which is a tribe that a lot of players like which hasn't gotten much support for a while now. Dominaria is a plane that's rich in different landscapes which is a real contrast from Amonkhet. The story on Dominaria can be vastly expanded upon, in fact it can be completely changed due to the length of time it has been since we last visited it. It's ripe for a creative reboot of sorts while still keeping the nostalgic aspects of Magic.
I'm very excited while also a little scared because the next plane must have Elves if they're to survive in Standard. The Battle for Zendikar block rotates out of Standard when the block after Amonket enters Standard. A majority of the playable Elves are from the BFZ sets. My hope is that Elves will get the excellent same treatment that Zombies got in Amonket with actual powerful lords and creatures that care about their specific tribes. Zombies got such a boost from the Amonkhet set that they're now a top deck in Standard. I wish this to happen with Elves in the next block.
Ixalan
Update 5/25/17:
It's been revealed that the next block after Amonkhet is Ixalan and the first set is called either Ixalan or possibly Rivals of Ixalan, released September 29, 2017. Rivals may be the name of the second set of the block with Ixalan being the name of the first set. All I know now is the block name. I don't know what plane Ixalan is taking place on. Hopefully we're told more about it on Announcement Day in June.
Update 7/24/17:
Ixalan is a new plane in the Magic multiverse. I had thought that maybe Ixalan was on Dominaria, but the sets after Ixalan are in fact taking place on Dominaria. Ixalan is the name of the first set with Rivals of Ixalan as the second set in the block. A lot is already known about Ixalan because of a series of leaks of pictures of the full page of the rares and mythics in the set. Unfortunately, although Ixalan looks like a tribal centric plane Elves are not there. There are no Elves in the leaked card images. The main tribes appear to be Dinosaurs and Pirates as well as Merfolk, Vampires and of course Humans, most are Pirates, but some are not, there's always Humans. If Ixalan does indeed not have Elves that would be two entire blocks, four sets with no new Elves in them.
This deck as it's constructed will rotate out of Standard when Ixalan enters Standard because Skyrider Elf rotates. No matter what I was going to have to make a new version of Energy Elves, but I hope that I would have some new Elf options to fill in the Elves that were rotating. It looks like this may not be the case.
A more positive way to look at this I guess is Dominaria, the set after Ixalan and Core 2019 the return of Core Sets after that. Elves are big part of the original Dominaria; I have to think that Wizards has something exciting in store for them since four total sets, eight months of time will have past that didn't have any new Elves in Standard. The negative is we have to wait a long time, into April 2018, until Dominaria is released and even longer for Core 2019. Origins was suppose to be the last Core Set and it was a very exciting set for Elves; in fact it was the set which basically reintroduced them into Standard as a tribe. I hope both Dominaria first and then Core 2019 follows this trend and interjects some new and exciting Elves into Standard.
Pure speculation: DFC Elves in Ixalan?
There's still a slim possibility that Elves are the tribe who are the Aztec Dino riders of the Sun Empire. The indigenous people of the Sun Empire are the Dino riders who protect Orazca, the city of gold. I say Aztec because of the helmet/headdress we see in the first image of a Dino rider. Above I've blown up the portion of the large introductory image of Ixalan to get a better look at just the Dino rider. The rider to me looks like an Elf and not a Human or a Merfolk, although it looks much closer to a Human then a Merfolk.
The interesting thing about this is the pictures of the leaked rare and mythic rares full printed sheet doesn't contain any Dino riders or creatures that look like the above rider. The cards have dinosaurs a lot of them, but they are single creatures, no actual card has a creature riding a dinosaur. This whole thing is quite strange; there has to be Dino riders they will be a huge selling point of this set. If we have already seen all the rares and mythics then where are they?
There's further speculation that due the strange size, large amount of cards in the Ixalan set that Double Faced Cards(DFC) are in the set. If this is the case DFCs get their own print sheet that contains all DFCs and only DFCs no matter the rarity that's separate from the traditional rare sheet; this is how the printing process works. It's very possible that the Dino riders are DFCs and they're Elves. The cards start out as either a tribal creature or a Dino and then their ability allows them to mount/transform into a pair (Dino with its rider) thus being stronger with more abilities which is a characteristic of the flip side of DFCs.